Expectations & Reality

I've been reflecting a lot about my age and my future recently, and I thought it would be a good time to reflect a bit more on expectations and reality. At work, we have been doing a wedding related campaign and it's got me thinking about expectations of engagement and marriage. As a keen Pinterest fan, I regularly get showered with inspirational wedding and engagement photos, and I almost feel bad I don't have my own board for it! Those images are exactly what I said though - inspiration. Because the reality can surely not be like that. Or can it?Have you ever watched the BBC show "Don't Tell The Bride"? Oh my lord... I know the couples on the show have been picked because they will make "good" TV, but it's quite shocking really. The thing that surprises me the most is how little the groom usually knows about his bride. Surely, if you're getting married, you've been together for quite some time and know each other inside out? As well as have been talking about your "big day" and what type of dress you would like many times before? One more thing as well, the things they get up to on the stag and hen do are just ridiculous. All that taken into account, it feels like many of these couples are not that serious?To me it seems that stag dos and hen dos are a very strange and sometimes unnecessary ceremony. According to this infographic, 32% of men believes that women have a "last night of freedom kiss" with another man on her hen do. That's a third! Also, 17% of men thinks that women will sleep with another man on her hen do. So why do they agree to women having these hen parties? Probably because that enables them to have a stag do? And what does this say about the expectations of joining in marriage with someone? It is just a part of life that comes with lots of parties and presents, or are people actually still interested in the romantic and religious part of partnership?Anyway, I think the reality of engagement and planning your wedding is very different to the romantic image many girls dream about. Myself, I have no expectations really, and I'm not planning on building any either, or starting a wedding board on Pinterest any time soon... Because, as the lovely quote above says: The best things in life are unexpected, because there were no expectations.Kristina xx